Pasta Shells with Spicy Marinara and Veggies

This was amazingly good! Tomato sauces are always better the next day.

With just a bit of planning you can have truly tasty home cooked meals. So much better than take out or frozen food! Whenever I make a pasta meal I prepare extra sauce and sautéed vegetables for a quick pizza the next day. All you need to do is make the dough. (And if you make the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day dough, it’s sitting in your refrigerator, ready to go!) This recipe makes about 2-3 servings of pasta.

Spicy Marinara Sauce
Adapted from allrecipes.com; makes about 2 cups sauce. If you’re going to make a pizza first with the sauce, try to make ahead of time so it has time to cool in refrigerator. Use half of the sauce for pasta meal and the other half for a pizza.

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
2-3 TB finely diced onion
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1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
3 TB tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 2 tsp dried
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
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1/4 cup white wine
1 TB low sodium Tamari
1/4 tsp Ume Plum vinegar
1/4 tsp dried pepper flakes
1/2 tsp unrefined sugar
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4 ounces whole wheat pasta shells*

Directions
In a food processor place stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped parsley, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.

In a large skillet over medium heat sauté the finely chopped onion in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add the blended tomato sauce, white wine, Tamari, vinegar, red pepper flakes, and sugar. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Reserve half of sauce for pizza.

Sautéed Vegetables 
Be sure to save half for a pizza the next day.

Ingredients
2 tsp avocado or virgin olive oil
6-8 mushrooms, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 heads of broccoli, finely chopped
salt, pepper to taste
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup or so of fresh spinach
1/2 zucchini, chopped

Directions
Add oil and mushrooms to sauté pan and cook until mushrooms begin to release moisture. Add garlic and broccoli, spices and wine and cook for a couple of minutes. Add spinach and zucchini and cook until spinach is limp. (Do not overcook. The broccoli should still be crisp and spaghetti and zucchini just barely limp.) Dump into strainer to cool and drain. Reserve half of veggies for the pizza that is in your near future.

Cook pasta according to box directions. Drain and add to reserved marinara sauce. Add sautéed vegetables to pasta and sauce. Heat gently and serve.

*If you are not using half the ingredients for pizza, cook 8 ounces or more of pasta.